When the Navy says go out and innovate, it means what?

One overarching interpretation of the word "innovation" holds that it is how ideas are practically implemented with end result being one of two potential outcomes:

Either the introduction of new goods or services, or the improvement in the offering of goods or services. Those lines can be blurred of course in the world of technology and particularly software.

What the Navy means when it asks tech contractors to go out and innovate was a focal point of the industry panel at Washington Technology's March Power Breakfast event focused on that service branch.

DJ LeGoff has seen the nature of that ask change and evolve first-hand, given his background as once an active duty program manager for the Navy and now leading Leidos' IT work for that branch and the Marine Corps.

LeGoff said the days of starting out with a contract and working together to develop the end solution are largely over, both in what the Navy wants and industry should seek to provide.

"Large industry partners have to invest a significant amount of their own dollars via IRAD (independent research-and-development) or other collaborative go-to-market capabilities in order to develop that ahead of need," LeGoff said. "So that when the demand signal comes, we're ready to propose something that you can use immediately."

Jerry Parker, executive vice president for business development at CACI International, has been an industry partner with the Navy for effectively his entire professional career.

Parker centered his perspective around the word "adaptability," given how each of the program executive offices and other components have their own unique mission sets and own needs.

One unique fabric to the Navy is its large fleet that shows power projection and deterrence on one hand, but also is an easily visible and detectable target. Other service branches like the Army are moving away from large platforms for that reason, Parker said.

"How do you take an aircraft carrier or a carrier, strike group and make them invisible to the enemy, and yet still have that same power projection that we need and rely on from our national security? That's a daunting challenge," Parker said.

A second challenge Parker highlighted is on the maintenance and engineering side with respect to naval architecture, given that these are some of the largest weapon systems in the world.

"We collectively can join up and say, 'You know what, that is a dying breed. How do we get those younger engineers into the fold to start learning a lot of those legacy graybeard lessons learned over the last 50 years,'" Parker added.

John Civiello, a vice president of business development at Serco Inc., also focused on platform integration as key to the Navy's innovation agenda because ships especially have to be mission-ready at all times.

Of course, the Navy expects quality work and for its contractors to be agile in a work environment where issues come up.

"There's things popping up every day in a shipbuilding program, things are breaking, things don't work, problems or trials, Congress calling the program offices, all kinds of things are popping up that are urgent," Civiello said. "I think the innovation that the Navy is looking for, it's not just in the program office.

"For small businesses: if you're not doing the design and the integration, but if you're just working in the program offices doing services, they expect you to try to improve that service that you're doing to save money," he said.